The Problem of Leisurehttps://problemofleisure.wordpress.com
Culture, politics and stuff from Andrew ChamberlainThu, 20 Feb 2014 12:23:09 +0000en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngThe Problem of Leisurehttps://problemofleisure.wordpress.com
Progressive my arsehttps://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/progressive-my-arse/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/progressive-my-arse/#respondThu, 20 Feb 2014 12:23:09 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=165Continue reading →]]>One of the on-going irritations of the Scottish independence debate is the claim by Yes campaigners that their cause is progressive whereas the No side is suffocatingly conservative.

Against this, it seems to me that there is no progressive cause that would be helped by Scotland becoming independent. Further, the majority of the Yes side, for all their rhetoric, seem uninterested in policies that could change Scotland in any way whatsoever.

A reasonable estimate given currency issues and projected oil prices is that independence would lop around four to five billion pounds off the Scottish Government’s budget. Anyone who is minded to vote Yes in order to promote spending on health/education/benefits is deluding himself.

The SNP in government have proven themselves averse to any policy that will significantly alter Scottish society. Judging by Scotland’s Future, this seems unlikely to change following independence. The document contains various small sweeteners like expanding childcare and reversing the bedroom tax. It’s hardly a recipe for a bold new direction for Scotland.

To make matters worse they have now managed to largely implement both of these policies within the existing constitutional settlement. In policy terms, why do the SNP now want independence?

Obviously, the people of an independent Scotland could elect any government they like. If Scots are minded to support a more radical regime than the one provided by the SNP there is nothing to stop them voting for one. The problem with this is that poll after poll shows that Scottish political attitudes are reasonably similar to the rest of the UK population. The conservatism of the SNP is popular.

For people who are interested in progressive politics, cutting Scotland off from the rest of the UK won’t make the task of changing attitudes any easier. At least within the Union we’ll have more money to play with.

Nationalists support an independent Scotland for its own sake. For anyone who is uninterested in nation states, as the Left in Britain historically has been, there is no reason to get involved with their campaign.

Margaret Thatcher left office when I was eight years old. I remember watching Michael Heseltine, Douglas Hurd and John Major vie to succeed her and finding the thought of a man being Prime Minister deeply odd. That in itself is a revolutionary fact – a whole generation spent their formative years knowing nothing except what it’s like to have a woman leading the country.

Thatcher herself would have wanted to be judged on the political legacy she left rather than her gender. That legacy is confused. On one hand she presided over a genuine increase in every British citizen’s freedom to own their home, own shares in companies and choose which goods and services they bought. On the other, she sought to restrict immigration, impose family values and ultimately to withdraw Britain to the fringes of Europe. More perniciously, the specific freedoms she advanced tended to benefit the middle classes far more than the poor.

The economic part of her program inspired Jo Grimond, figurehead for the post-war Liberal revival, to write ‘Much of what Mrs Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph say and do is in the mainstream of liberal philosophy.’ Grimond’s view of Thatcher as being, at least to an extent, a liberal is undoubtedly correct. Her father, who she credited as the major formative influence on her politics, came from a Liberal-voting family and according to Thatcher’s sister, Muriel, he was “always a Liberal at heart”. Many of the economists who inspired the Thatcherite economic program would have described themselves as classical liberals rather than conservatives.

The style of liberalism that Thatchers Snr. and Jnr. adhered to was a throwback to the nineteenth century. Their classical liberalism shared a belief in competitive markets with the modern creed, but also incorporated a rejection of wealth redistribution. Thatcher committed herself to rolling back the frontiers of the state without transferring the means for those who had been state dependents to stand on their own two feet. The result was that as formerly state subsidised industries crumbled people simply moved onto benefits, helping to create many of the problems that the current government is struggling with.

Thatcher’s failure to grapple with the maldistribution of wealth in this country makes her legacy problematic for liberals. In addition, she was happy to face down militant working class trade unions, but much less able or willing to take on middle class professional bodies. As a result market-based reforms to healthcare and education, like education vouchers, that could have genuinely benefited the poor didn’t happen.

Thatcher achieved a great deal, but in the end she only did half the job and promoted the interests of half the country. As a result, Britain’s most successful postwar free marketeer ended up souring liberal economic policies for the people who have most to gain from their complete implementation – the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.

For those on the Left who want to implement market-based reforms to public services it’s Margaret Thatcher’s record that is their greatest stumbling block.

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/margaret-thatcher-half-a-liberal/feed/0problemofleisureMargaret_Thatcher_visiting_Jimmy_CarterThe Futureheads in Glasgowhttps://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-futureheads-in-glasgow/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-futureheads-in-glasgow/#respondMon, 18 Feb 2013 16:58:44 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=147Continue reading →]]>The following videos are from an interview and session that I filmed along with three friends from my journalism course in April last year.

The event took place in the Glasgow University Union while the building was closed for a bank holiday. The band dropped in immediately prior to their gig in the Oran Mor that evening.

The interview with lead singer Barry Hyde and bassist David ‘Jaff’ Craig was originally featured on the Daily Record web site.

Their first session track was Beeswing, a cover of the Richard Thompson song, from their current album Rant.

Their second was the traditional drinking song Old Dun Cow which is also from Rant.

Hat-tip to cameramen, David Lyons, Stephen Walsh and Craig Telfer.

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-futureheads-in-glasgow/feed/0problemofleisureSome thoughts on Labour’s economic policy ahead of Ed Miliband’s speech on Thursdayhttps://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/labour-economic-policy-speech/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/labour-economic-policy-speech/#respondTue, 12 Feb 2013 18:35:46 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=144Continue reading →]]>He may have been banished to the backbenches two years ago but Gordon Brown still casts a long shadow over those sitting in front of him.

The latest ICM poll shows 29% voters still blame Labour’s legacy for the current performance of the economy as opposed to 23% blaming the Coalition’s record in government.

So far Labour have been attempting to sell the idea that if they had been re-elected in 2010 the extra £6 billion they had planned to spend in the first year of this parliamentary term would have prevented a double dip recession.

This is implausible. £6 billion amounts to approximately 0.4% of GDP. If that spending had been directed towards a well-designed stimulus package then the most that an economist would expect is that it would result in roughly 0.4% of additional growth.

Since Labour was not planning to spend that money on measures exclusively aimed at stimulating the economy it’s reasonable to assume that at best the effect on growth would have been less than 0.4%. Furthermore, there’s actually reason to believe that the effect on growth from implementing Labour’s plans could have been negative.

This author argues that Gordon Brown’s large stimulus package in 2008/9 reduced growth. He bases his case on comparison with Sweden which, unlike Britain, had run a budget surplus in the years prior to the credit crunch and was able to bounce out of recession with a much smaller stimulus than the UK.

This brings us to the least defensible aspect of Brown’s term as Chancellor – his decision to run a budget deficit in every year between 2002 and 2007 in spite of the fact that the economy was growing. That flew in the face of conventional wisdom on what amounts to good economic policy and almost certainly eroded the government’s ability to stimulate the economy when the downturn arrived.

Even if there is a case for a renewed package of fiscal stimulus in the UK, the record of the last Labour government and the stance adopted by Ed’s Miliband and Balls in opposition hamper their credibility in making it.

Ed Miliband should use his speech on Thursday not to praise Gordon Brown but to bury him.

It’s a familiar rhetorical theme that Liberal Democrat and Alliance politicians have wheeled out over the last thirty years, but coming from Clegg it feels a little disappointing.

The Orange Book, which in 2004 brought Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne and it’s editor David Laws to the attention of the political classes, was sub-titled “Reclaiming Liberalism”. The liberalism to which the editors laid claim sounds a lot like that of the Liberal Party from Archibald Sinclair to Jo Grimond. Unlike Clegg et al, Grimond wouldn’t have hesitated to refer to himself as a Left winger.

In Grimond’s case he would talk about the Liberal party’s mission as being to realign the Left while simultaneously advocating the privatisation of the railways and the NHS. To some modern eyes this might look like conservatism dressed up as a progressive ideology.

In truth, influenced by Hilaire Belloc, the Liberal Party had adopted a radical alternative to Labour’s postwar state socialism. The idea was to take wealth, property and power from those with the most and redistribute it to those with the least thereby giving everyone the means to live independently of the state. This was opposed to the socialists’ policies to effectively replace wealthy private landlords with council landlords and business owners with politicians and political appointees.

In policy terms, the Liberals advocated extensive worker share ownership schemes and land value taxes aimed at breaking up inherited wealth. These ideas find echoes in the policies adopted by the Liberal Democrats since the publication of the Orange Book.

Nick Clegg should spend 2013 building on policies like the privatisation of the Royal Mail (Lib Dem) and the setting up of free schools (Tory, but first mooted by Paddy Ashdown). Furthermore, he and his team should be fleshing out a radical approach to the economy designed to give power to the people. He shouldn’t retreat to simply seeking to moderate lurches in one direction or another inspired by the other parties.

In the closing years of the coalition it will be vitally important for the Lib Dems to set out their own distinct vision. Failure to do so will compound the party’s problems in 2015.

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/nick-cleggs-new-years-resolutions/feed/0problemofleisureTwo Gallants, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 30th October 2012https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/two-gallants-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-30th-october-2012/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/two-gallants-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-30th-october-2012/#respondSun, 16 Dec 2012 16:48:46 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=134Continue reading →]]>The audience for Two Gallants’ performance in King Tut’s were a literate-looking bunch. Spectacles and beards abounded, as you might expect amongst a group of people who’d come to see a band named after a James Joyce story.

The impression that this was a gathering of quiet intellectuals was shattered, however, when the singer of one of the support acts asked if anyone had any drugs and was met with the response “aye, but they’re suppositories” from one bespectacled audience member.

The first support act was singer-songwriter, Jonathan Snee. He has a strong voice and his more anguished material shows definite promise.

Following him was Belgium’s The Hickey Underworld. They play a complicated brand of grungy emo rock. While the band are impressive musicians, the material didn’t really seem to connect with the audience until they moved away from the more emotional songs and started rocking out towards the end of their set.

Adam Stephens, the lead singer of Two Gallants, took to the stage in a Guns ‘n’ Roses Use Your Illusion t-shirt. Given the fact that the band’s songs are often stories set in the 19th century I had half-expected the duo to come out wearing flat caps and braces.

At their best the Gallants use fiction to express quite raw emotional states. One of the highlights of their set was My Madonna with it’s repeated line “if liquor’s a lover, you know I’m a whore”.

Musically the spare combination of distorted folksy guitar and drums with occasional harmonica is effective. Stephens’ often cracked voice gets across their tales of heartbreak and despair brilliantly.

Other highlights included Despite What You’ve Been Told, Steady Rollin’ and Las Cruces Jail – all of which come from the band’s older albums.

The less despairing material is much less engaging than the songs about drinking yourself to death and the like. One of the audience repeatedly shouted out for Broken Eyes, a relatively upbeat number from their latest album. The band delivered this as the closer for their main set. While much of the audience sang along happily, I would have been disappointed if this had marked the end of the gig.

Fortunately, they came back for an encore and finished on the satisfyingly depressing Nothing To You.

If you’re going to listen to people pretending that they’re from the 19th century then I’d recommend these guys over Mumford and Sons any day of the week.

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/two-gallants-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-30th-october-2012/feed/0problemofleisureInterview with Off!, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 21st June 2012https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-off-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-21st-june-2012/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-off-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-21st-june-2012/#respondSun, 16 Dec 2012 16:34:40 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=131Continue reading →]]>“It’s like this big fucking hairy ball with rubber bands and staples and snow and it’s rolling down the hill and it’s going to crash into your house.”

That’s how Keith Morris of legendary hardcore punk band The Circle Jerks describes his critically acclaimed new outfit, Off! It’s a confident assertion given that Morris and Off!’s Dimitri Coats started their collaboration writing material for a planned new Circle Jerks album – a project that collapsed acrimoniously.

Keith remembers the moment the rest of the band decided they didn’t want to have Dimitri produce the album: “I got a phone call one night at 10:30pm and we had a conversation that was very, very lop-sided.

“’We’re going to take control.’ Are you fucking kidding? One guy wears cowboy boots because he can’t tie his shoes.”

On Dimitri’s account the ultimatum was provoked by him rewriting songs that other Circle Jerks had started. Here’s how he remembers the night Off! began:

“I put in a lot of work. My daughter, my first child, had just been born when we started trying to work on this album. I was climbing out of a hospital bed. Sleeping with my wife and my newborn daughter in this little hospital room going to these writing sessions with these guys.

“I’d really put a lot of my life into it at this point and for what? Nothing. All of a sudden I get a call from my wife. She goes, ‘you need to come home – Keith is here.’

“So I went home and Keith was there. Myself, Keith and my wife at a table. He goes, ‘Dimitri, I know you’re probably upset, but don’t be. I knew this was probably going to happen and it’s the best thing that could have happened because we’re going to form a band.’”

In spite of the success of Off! Keith seems to have lingering resentment for his former bandmates from the Circle Jerks: “I don’t really have a lot of nice things to say about them. I’m happy that Zander’s off playing with Sean from Throw Rag – that’s really cool. Other than that, keep running. See you later. Eat my dust.”

The two records that have emerged from the new band sound a lot like the sort of hardcore punk that The Circle Jerks and Black Flag were turning out in the late seventies and early eighties.

Dimitri: “The music that he was playing for both of us for inspiration was not punk rock music it was all stuff that those guys were listening to back in the late seventies that inspired that first wave of hardcore or whatever you want to call it.

“I hail from that same place. It’s classic rock. All our record collections are not too far away from one another.

“I was forcing him to listen to his early material. He was yelling at me telling me what I can and can’t do on the guitar. Something just happened. We built this time machine by accident.”

The timewarp extends beyond the music to the artwork on the records. Raymond Pettibon, who provided the artwork for classic Black Flag albums, had been close friends with Keith back in the early days but the two had drifted their separate ways. Keith decided to get back in touch: “We hit it off and we were wondering why we hadn’t contacted each other.

“One night we were going to go to a rock show in San Pedro to see Mike Watt (ex-Minutemen bassist) and his band. On the way down we played Raymond and his girlfriend four songs.

“Raymond was like, ‘I want to work with you guys. If you want to use some of my artwork, feel free.’”

For hardcore punk fans eager for hints about what the band will do next Dimitri had this to say: “Cameron Jamie, he wants to do a movie where we’re the Monkees. His version of that.

“Cameron Jamie is a pretty serious artist. He lived in France for a while. Now he’s in Berlin. He’s the real deal. Painter, sculptor, film-maker. His shows are only shown in specific places and usually with a band playing in front of them like The Melvins. He loves Off! And he was talking about making a movie where we’re like the Monkees.”

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-off-king-tuts-wah-wah-hut-21st-june-2012/feed/0problemofleisureInterview with Tom Burke from Citizens!, 14th June 2012https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-tom-burke-from-citizens-14th-june-2012/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-tom-burke-from-citizens-14th-june-2012/#respondSun, 16 Dec 2012 16:17:35 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=128Continue reading →]]>Tom Burke of the hotly tipped new indie band Citizens! seems genuinely pleased to be in Glasgow after playing an energetic set in King Tut’s.

“There’s a lot of Glasgow heritage in the band in a way. Lawrence’s dad is from the east end of Glasgow and Mike grew up not very far away from here as well. Lawrence is a massive Celtic fan and stuff so it kind of captured our imagination.”

While the band were on fine form and there was a homecoming feel to the gig with lots of friends and family present it has to be said that King Tut’s was far from packed. This is something that Tom is determined to rectify.

“We’re going to keep touring England. We can play to decent crowds in London and in other cities across Europe – the capital cities and places with really decent crowds. So we’re going to keep plugging away until we can do that in towns across the UK as well.

“We’re not really interested in just being a London band we’re up for getting out there so we’re going to keep coming back until people get the message.”

Another Glasgow connection comes in the shape of Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos who produced their debut album, Here We Are.

“He gets that pop music doesn’t have to be daft, because that’s what Franz were. They were a party pop band that was also really interesting and credible and that was the line that we were going to try to tread.

“We talked to a lot of different producers about our album and all they could hear was the pop and the commercial potential. Basically they wanted to make us sound like The Killers and we hate The Killers so we didn’t want to sound like that.

“Then we went to Alex and he was like (slight hint of a Scottish impersonation before retreating to London) ‘No, no let’s just get in a room, play the songs, play it naturally and get as much human feeling as possible and put that out and see what happens with that’ and that’s what we did.”

Another upshot of having recorded their debut album with Alex Kapranos was that they were introduced to the work of Glasgow’s own Limmy. They linked to his ‘She’s turned the weans against us’ Youtube video from their web site prior to the gig and exchanged Twitter messages with him on their journey North.

“We tweeted that we were coming up and he was like, ‘Yaaass! Welcome to town, sorry I can’t make the show.’ We were chuffed.”

Aside from Kapranos Tom cites legendary NewYork electronic outfit Suicide as an influence over the sound of the album.

“They make surprisingly well-composed melodic music. It’s actually like Bach if you take it to pieces. Martin Rev did a solo album called Martin Rev and the melodies from that are like Kraftwerk. Just really simple interlocking melodies.

“We’re big fans of their stuff. They make really simple cheap instruments sound good by using them in ways that you’re not supposed to and recording them in ways that you’re not supposed to.”

This is the approach that Tom says was taken for Here We Are.

“It’s a very analogue lo-fi record. It’s very lo-fi. I don’t know if you’ve heard it but if you compare it to the Tribes album or the Spector album ours is unusually, foolhardily possibly, lo-fi. That was the album we wanted to make and we’re proud of it.”

Whilst the album is unmistakably low tech in its instrumentation it still sounds quite deliberate and constructed. Kitsuné, the label that Citizens! are signed to, is a fashion label as well as a music label. This prompts the question as to whether the band are pursuing a particular aesthetic.

“The thing that we kind of share is that kind of dark glamour which not many people are doing at the moment and it suits our music. It’s not really a thing that’s set up. It just naturally flows from what we wear.”

The band would be well advised to worry less about being darkly glamorous and concentrate on rocking out – something that on tonight’s evidence they’re more than capable of doing.

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-tom-burke-from-citizens-14th-june-2012/feed/0problemofleisureInterview with Andy LaPlegua (Combichrist/Icon of Coil), 26th June 2012https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-andy-laplegua-combichristicon-of-coil-26th-june-2012/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-andy-laplegua-combichristicon-of-coil-26th-june-2012/#commentsSun, 16 Dec 2012 16:12:17 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=125Continue reading →]]>“If you are born you will shit yourself, you will die. That’s the only two things that are for sure.”

“You’ll shit yourself?!”

So begins one of many exchanges about death during my half hour conversation with Andy LaPlegua – pronounced ‘Lah-pleg-ah’ – from top electro-industrial outfit Combichrist.

“When you die you shit yourself. It just happens. I’m not saying you should go and celebrate shitting yourself, but if you can celebrate life you can just as well celebrate death. It’s just as natural as life itself.”

We’re seated on either side of what looks like a school desk in a long narrow room with black painted walls. Andy is a big lad with tattoos up his arms. He seems cheerful in spite of his morbid preoccupations.

Combichrist is just one of the bands that Andy – who describes himself as a ‘musical schizo’ – maintains. He is also the singer and sole songwriter for Icon of Coil, Panzer AG and Scandinavian Cock as well as producing and DJing under the name Scandy.

While Icon of Coil and Panzer AG are variations on the electro-industrial theme and Scandy is a techno project, Scandinavian Cock is a straightforward punk band.

“That’s what I grew up with. That’s what I listen to myself. It’s very rare that I listen to electronic music at all by myself.”

Andy’s journey from being a teenage punk rocker to one of the fixtures of the industrial pantheon started in Frederikstad, Norway. Following early exposure to English electro-industrialists Nitzer Ebb he ended up getting involved with programming the electronics for an old school hip hop group.

“The scene in my home city was so small when it comes to alternative music that everybody from hip hop to black metal were all friends. So we’d switch members and do things for each other and it was really weird.

“When I was with the hip hop project we did a show together with some black metal bands. You never see that happening now. That’s how everything started getting mixed in and mixed together.”

Switching between a number of different projects is something that Andy believes is of benefit to the music he makes.

“It gives me objectivity because when I’m done working on one thing and I’m working on Combichrist again I can stay objective with what I want to do with Combichrist. If I’ve gone too long without playing in a proper rock band I want too badly to put that into the next thing I’m doing so subconsciously I will.

“At the same time it allows me to tease with pulling things from this project into this project and switch it around a little bit. Move the bar around a little bit. It’s freedom for music.”

Militaristic themes crop up frequently in his work. On his interest in conflict, the self-proclaimed war history buff had the following to say:

“I think in the same way as you will be sucked into it if you are watching a movie about a serial killer or something you get sucked into it because it’s so strange to us. You can’t put yourself in his situation. At the same time we’re all capable of it.

“Everybody is capable of killing but to us, hopefully to most of us, it’s a completely bizarre idea. That I found interesting. That something so human is so strange to most humans.”

For an artist who has been criticised in the past for singing provocative lyrics and using offensive imagery his reaction to my suggestion that he’s in a long line of musicians who have used imagery from World War 2 is unusual. Here’s Andy’s take on Lemmy from Motorhead’s habit of wearing Nazi uniforms:

“I think it’s ridiculous. I think what he does is absolutely ridiculous. I could have done the same mistakes when I was a kid because you kind of like to provoke when you’re a kid but you grow up and you start thinking a little bit. You’re not just like a punk any more.

“It’s not really even provocative because it’s just silly. You’re not provoked you’re just looking at him like ‘what is he doing?’ I guess some people don’t grow up.”

Before embarking on his current tour with Combichrist Andy was working on a radically different project to the work for which he’s best known.

“It’s just me and acoustic guitar. It’s very, very back to roots of songwriting. In any of the other bands I have every single one would require me to have an audience to bother playing it live. It’s not the same with a full band playing in a room with no people.

“This is the first album that I’m writing that I’d be happy just to sit down completely alone and play because it’s just that personal.”

While none of Andy LaPlegua’s projects have pushed forward into hitherto unconquered musical territory, he has consistently shown a willingness to try out things that he hasn’t tried before.

“I never once since I started making music wanted any huge fame or amazingness. I only wanted to write a song and then when I wrote a song I wanted to have a band to play this song with.

“When we did this we were super excited and then how amazing would it be to play a show?! You just go step by step. I never felt it was a risk for me to do anything different, because it was never about getting bigger as an artist. It was always about doing what I wanted to do as an artist.”

It’s this attitude that keeps the music fresh and energetic and makes Combichrist a fun act to go and see live.

]]>https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-andy-laplegua-combichristicon-of-coil-26th-june-2012/feed/1problemofleisureInterview with Slam at T in the Park 2012https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-slam-at-t-in-the-park-2012/
https://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/interview-with-slam-at-t-in-the-park-2012/#respondSun, 16 Dec 2012 16:01:31 +0000http://problemofleisure.wordpress.com/?p=122Continue reading →]]>It’s ten minutes before Slam are due to go on stage and kick off their tent at T in the Park. I’ve just been ushered into a portakabin behind the tent to talk to Slam’s Stuart MacMillan and Orde Meikle. Orde’s a big lad, Stuart’s smaller and chattier.

I kick off by asking what they’ve got in store for us today during their four and a half hour set.

Stuart says, “I think it will be more akin to what we’re used to doing in [London nightclub] Fabric because we always play 5 or 6 hours there from the start to the end. I guess we’ll probably start quite deep and then build it up and just take it on a bit of a journey. It’s a really fulfilling thing to do as a DJ, especially at a festival because very rarely does a DJ even get 2 hours at a festival. It’s good to do it with Sven [Väth] as well because he’s another guy who likes playing long sets.”

Orde expands, “I think you hear the best of Sven, probably the best take of us as well, over a 4 or four and a half hour period. So, yeah, really looking forward to it. Usually you turn up and you’ve 45 minutes or an hour and it’s the middle of the afternoon…”

Stuart continues, “In Fabric you’re just getting started after two hours. The beautiful thing about it is you’ve really set something. You’re not having to go on after someone that’s really banging it or doing something that’s the antithesis of what you’re going to do. The vibe that you’ve created is built from the start.”

Moving on to the Saturday, I ask about the thinking behind the line up they’ve selected.

Stuart says, “The Saturday’s a bit of a departure for us musically. It’s not really representative of our own musical tastes. I guess there is a big responsibility in running what is the main dance tent at something like T in the Park. As always we’ve tried to keep it really credible and relevant so there’s a lot of new guys and some more dubstep and stuff like that which is not really what we’re known for but at the end of the day we can’t be completely narrow-minded.

“It wouldn’t be right to be narrow-minded when there’s such a wide demographic. We have to try and cater to that, but we’re not going to put Judge Jules or something on or some big trance guy.”

Orde says, “Not till next year.” (laughs)

They mention that the line up on the Sunday is more to their taste and I put it to them that Sunday in the Slam tent is awe-inspiring.

Orde agrees, “Absolutely, yeah. With Orbital kind of the icing on the cake really. So we’re looking forward to that.”

Stuart continues, “… and Dubfire, Len Faki, Maya Jane Cole’s a great DJ. I don’t think it’s any secret that we love house music as much as we do techno. Maya Jane’s definitely somebody that’s right up there in the house music stakes at the moment. For such a wee person it’s such a big sound.”

Orde says, “Really unassuming person and just a fantastic DJ. We had her on at Pressure a couple of months ago and she just rocked it. Absolutely rocked it.”

They don’t even mention Simian Mobile Disco or Joris Voorn.

Orde says, “We’re going to be up on Sunday enjoying ourselves meeting a lot of our friends we don’t normally get to see.”

Stuart says, “I’m looking forward to hanging with the Pan-Pot guys [also on the line up] as well because they’re really good friends of ours and we just had a party together in Barcelona at Sonar. The mobilee roof party. Which was (Orde – Stunning!) a really great party. It’s on the roof of the diagonal hotel overlooking Barcelona – packed, just nice. Really cool crowd. It was great.”

I thank them for their time and wander off into the mud contemplating whether it might be time to change my profession.